1. How has Walmart used its supply chain management systems to lower costs and outperform the competition?

2. How can Walmart use the retail data it gathers to improve the activities involved in promoting and selling products to customers as well as providing customer service and nourishing long-term relationships?

3. How can companies like Walmart benefit from combining their SCM and CRM systems into one integrated information system?

Preparing in advance for a focus group is an important process. What are some of the activities that a focus group moderator should do in advance and why do you think they are important?

• For the company Tesla I need a Company Description - including brief company history and background, current customers
• For marketing class

Prepare a legal Brief for one of the following upcoming Supreme Court Cases:

A) Google LLC v. Oracle America, Inc.
- Does copyright protection extend to a software interface? Does petitioner’s use of a software interface in the context of creating a new computer program constitute fair use?

The Gettysburg Address

President Abraham Lincoln

November 19, 1863

"Fourscore and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battlefield of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field as a final resting-place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this. But, in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate — we cannot consecrate — we cannot hallow — this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us — that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion — that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain — that this nation shall have a new birth of freedom and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth."

Based on the document Gettysburg Address, what actions did enslaved people take during the Civil War and how were they treated by the Union army? How did the Emancipation Proclamation and the Gettysburg Address, change the purpose of the Civil War?

In your opinion, what are companies that use sales promotion (offline and online) effectively? Based on what we learned in Chapter 13, tell us the name of the company and its sale promotion strategies.

Consulting: INITIAL INTERVIEW

You are a CEO (Michelle Royal) of Goodwill Industries of Boston, which serves twelve locations in the greater Boston area.  Overall, the stores are doing very well but you know they can be more successful and productive.  For example, you have experienced positive retail revenue growth over the past three years; however, the growth was still lower than the average and your donor volume is down. On the other hand, your sales per square foot outperformed the national average.

Consequently, you called Headquarters (HQ) and investigated the possibility of having a consultant come to Boston to review your situation and give recommendations for improvement.  You were talking to the CEO in Chicago and she explained that she found the consulting to be a very helpful exercise.  The contact at HQ asked you a few questions and said that Jane/Joe Reynolds, an inhouse retail consultant, would be giving you a call.

You have been in your position for one year.  You did not have any previous retail experience before taking the Goodwill position.  You have pretty much continued the work of your predecessor and have tried to remain very independent and creative.  For example, you and your staff like to create your own signage as opposed to using the standard Goodwill prototypes. Your expertise is finance and you have been able to implement and maintain excellent financial reports.

You suspect that improvement can be made through increased efficiency and production.

Some areas that you think might need attention:  merchandise layout, pricing, sorting and processing, transportation.  Furthermore, your new Retail Manager thinks one of your store managers might be ineffective. Your style has been rather formal.  You tend to work one-on-one with your key managers and supervisors.

Though you want help (you really want to surpass all Goodwill averages), you are concerned about having a consultant come and "snoop around."  You realize that this is the only way, however, so you decide to talk to the consultant and see what he suggests in terms of coming to Boston.  You are very concerned about how he/she is going to go about the project.  You would like to keep things very quiet, not involve too many people, and not stir things up.  After all, it seems to you that things are going generally well.

Background info: The mission of Goodwill is to provide work for underprivileged and to do that through retail stores. The underprivileged are trained for a period of time by working in the stores and then sent out into the broader marketplace. Consequently, the Goodwill Stores (collecting old stuff and selling it), is only a means for the real mission.

Goodwill HQ has a team of internal consultants, each with different areas of expertise, who are available to travel to the different locations when they need help. The individual Goodwill locations are independent and are “loosely” tied to HQ, more as nonprofit associations, not industry. Consequently, the CEOs of the various Goodwill locations want assistance but also want to remain independent—the classic “push-pull” that consultants encounter.

Assignment:

You are the Goodwill HQ Consultant that Michelle calls. Since she is in Boston and you are in D.C., you decide to conduct the conversations (which you two have formally scheduled) through visual WEBX so you can see one another faces.

Brainstorm and jot down how you would go about the interview. Following the information in your consulting packet on how to conduct the exploratory phase of formulating an intervention, what questions would you ask? How would you explain your role and the parameters of the consulting arrangement? How would you gain Michelle’s trust? What kind of resistance do you think she will demonstrate? How will you handle that resistance?

Then, actually write out an entire conversation, making it up as you go, demonstrating the skills sets that you know you have to demonstrate. Have Michelle challenge you and deal with her resistance and getting through all phases of the exploratory phase. End the session by summarizing next steps.

You:

Michelle:

You:

Michelle:

Etc.

Explain how would Nike manage their inventory and whether an adaptation of the Economic order quantity model would be useful for them.

In 1943 Abraham Maslow proposed that individuals have five basic needs, arranged in a hierarchy from lowest to highest they are physiological, safety, love, esteem, and self-actualization. David McClelland focused on a needs-based theory which proposed that individuals have three basic needs: the need for achievement, the need for affiliation, and the need for power. The needs described in both these theories are often used by managers during the motivation and goal-setting process with employees.

1. Why do you believe it is important to understand the needs of your employees? How will this benefit the organization?
2. As a manager what are the basic needs that could be fulfilled by the organization if the Maslow theory is used? What are the needs that fall in line with the McClelland theory?
3. How can the needs listed be turned into motivation to help the employee succeed?

As a Manager in a foreign subsidiary, how can you reconcile local expectations of questionable payments with the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act? What is your stance on the problem of "payoffs?" How does the degree of law enforcement in a particular country affect ethical behaviors in business? Explain your answer.

A colleague of yours is struggling to handle change requests throughout their project life cycle, and now his project is falling apart. He has come to you for advice on best practices.

• Share with your colleague why managing change requests is critical to the project’s success.
• Discuss the most effective process for handling change requests, including how different technologies can be utilized.

Human Resources performs many functions in an organization.A primary responsibility is assisting leaders and managers in recruiting and selecting future employees.While seemingly a straight forward task,'s, assessing a candidate's relevant skills,abilities,personality and intelligences, is fraught with challenges.Among these is the ability to accurately identify the candidate's job fit while minimizing the candidate's and interviewer's biases.What can HR professionals and managers do in order to limit the number of incorrect hires(false positives) and failing to hire the right candidates(false negatives).

How Can Decision-Making Process be applied To any organization that you think of. Discuss with practical examples. Follow all steps of decision making process from top to bottom.

It Should include.

Executive summary
Introduction
Analysis
Conclusion & Recommendations

Word limit is 5000 (words)

QUESTION 32

1. Organizations with a diverse workforce are most likely to _____ when compared to less diverse organizations.

   	a.	have higher levels of productivity
   	b.	have higher levels of turnover
   	c.	have higher levels of absenteeism
   	d.	foster fewer conflicts
   	e.	have a lack of understanding of different market segments

0.2564 points   

QUESTION 33

1. In the context of the job characteristics approach, skill variety refers to the

   	a.	extent to which a worker does a complete or identifiable portion of the total job.
   	b.	perceived importance of a task.
   	c.	number of things a person does in a job.
   	d.	extent to which a worker knows how well the job is being performed.
   	e.	degree of control a worker has over how the work is performed.

0.2564 points   

QUESTION 34

1. Which of the following is an example of dysfunctional behavior?

   	a.	Agreeableness
   	b.	Extraversion
   	c.	Cognitive dissonance
   	d.	Organizational citizenship ​
   	e.	Racial harassment

0.2564 points   

QUESTION 35

1. A school has a policy that it will never higher pregnant women as teachers. This scenario illustrates

   	a.	confirmatory bias.
   	b.	workforce diversity.
   	c.	a direct form of discrimination.
   	d.	source monitoring error.
   	e.	affirmative action.

0.2564 points   

QUESTION 36

1. _____ thinking is a skill that allows people to see differences among situations, phenomena, or events.

   	a.	Differentiated
   	b.	Divergent
   	c.	Creative
   	d.	Cognitive
   	e.	Convergent

0.2564 points   

QUESTION 37

1. Creating different teams for finance, production, and marketing is consistent with _____ departmentalization.

   	a.	location
   	b.	product
   	c.	functional
   	d.	sequential
   	e.	customer

0.2564 points   

QUESTION 38

1. According to the job characteristics approach, increasing the presence of the five dimensions it identifies will lead to all of the following EXCEPT

   	a.	higher-quality performance.
   	b.	higher turnover.
   	c.	higher motivation.
   	d.	lower absenteeism.
   	e.	higher satisfaction.

0.2564 points   

QUESTION 39

1. _____ is a person’s beliefs about his or her capabilities to perform a task.

   	a.	Risk propensity
   	b.	Self-efficacy
   	c.	Authoritarianism
   	d.	Locus of control
   	e.	Openness.